Whereas most attention had been focused on the reform of local government and the statements made by the Minister of the Interior, predisposing us to some extent to the visible danger of the much-vaunted change evolving into a multifaceted disappointment, another, larger-scale failure of the state, the protests of the trade unions in the Public Service and of those who work in it gain “points” in the news, for the also much-vaunted reform in the Public Sector.
However, we all had more or less realized early on that it was not, and is not, exactly a reform.
Reactions were many from the beginning and initially focused on intersectoral promotions. With our justified to some extent suspicion about the demands of public employees regarding promotions and scales, most of us said “let them shout.”
And many, pandering to deep-seated prejudice, said “for public employees to shout, intersectoral promotions should not be bad”…
On the other hand, the Parliament – and to some extent the executive authority – accepted some requests from ministries or services for the exemption of their employees from intersectoral promotions, without convincingly explaining why in some ministries and services the new institution is necessary and useful and should be avoided elsewhere.
In this environment, the demand of PASYDY for the postponement of the reform was met more with mockery than with analysis and dialogue.
And when the time came to implement the new employee evaluation system, almost all of us said, “finally, there will be mercy for the excellent ones.”
The unions shouted again, said something about hasty procedures, asked again for some extension, said that the new system should be implemented on a pilot basis, but their interventions fell on deaf ears.
And ultimately, for several days now, we have been hearing that the marriage is being rushed in government services and departments, and we will not be surprised if we hear at some point about hair-pulling, due to the evaluations.
And yesterday, ASDYK said that we are rapidly moving from the leveling of the excellent to the leveling of the mediocre, attributing it to targeted low ratings.
Obviously, the column does not have an opinion on whether the new evaluation system is right or wrong.
And of course, the old system needed to be replaced with another.
However, if this other, which is being implemented these days, will lead, as PASYDY and ASDYK and other trade unionists and a multitude of employees say, to a flood of objections, protracted procedures for examining objections, destabilization of relationships between superiors, subordinates, and evaluators, or even to dynamic reaction measures, then it is logical to say that alongside the implementation of the new legislation and the new evaluation and promotion systems, it would not be bad to start a dialogue.
To listen to the observations and evaluate them.
P.S. Obviously, the view of the longtime general director of ministries, Andreas Assiotis, is confirmed. He wrote in Phileleftheros since since July 2021 that “while the modernization of the methodology of evaluation and promotion of public employees is rightly sought, it would be wrong to consider the government’s specific choice as the panacea that will significantly upgrade either the abilities or the quality of the work of public employees, with such speed that the change would be positively felt in our country. Even worse, it would be inappropriate and excessive for someone to claim that with the promotion of the three bills, the need for reform is satisfied or the modernization of the public service is completed.”
